We are pleased to present Building Resilient Cities: An Assessment of Disaster Risk Management Policies in Southeast Asia, a study conducted by the OECD with the support of the Global Initiative on Disaster Risk Management (GIDRM), a project commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. This study presents a framework for national and subnational governments to assess disaster risk management policies for enhancing resilience in cities exposed to a variety of natural hazards, posing significant threats to the well-being and livelihood of citizens. Many of the disaster risk management (DRM) examples from Southeast Asia analysed in this report are also applicable to other regions of the world.

Asian cities are particularly vulnerable to risks associated with natural disasters. While they are exposed to various types of natural hazards, flooding and other water-related disasters pose particularly significant risks and undermine long-term economic growth, especially in coastal cities. Between 1980 and 2017, Asia suffered disproportionately from natural disasters, both in terms of lives lost (over 1.2 million people or 71% of total global loss of life) and uninsured assets (89% of total losses of USD 1.69 trillion). Therefore, managing natural disaster risks is an essential component of urban policies in fast-growing Asian cities, especially as the impacts of climate change worsen.

The frequency of climate-related natural disasters has increased globally. Between 1980 and 2017 in Asia, there were over 1.2 million recorded fatalities and a loss of USD 1.69 trillion in assets due to natural disasters. Asset losses have increased over the past decades due not only to more frequent disasters, but also to the increasing value of public and private assets located in vulnerable locations.